Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities
Chuck Palahniuk is well known for writing about extreme topics: underground fight clubs, death cults, murderous songs, marathon-length pornographic acts, horribly disfigurement, etc. He has attracted both critical attention and critical revulsion, and it seems like nobody who reads his work lacks an opinion about it. His fictions careen through genres of all sorts, always using his trademark minimalist style.
Stranger than Fiction is notable for the way that the author applies his eye and style to strange episodes from real life. He describes the life of submariners in "The People Can," detailing the hard, monotonous life of patrols undersea. In "My Life as a Dog," he writes about the injuries people are willing to inflict when they don't perceive their victims as human. The volume also includes a number of odd, odd profiles of various celebrities, as well as stories from his own life, covering everything from lip enhancers to procrastination. This book provides a good taste of Palahniuk's writing, as well as his signature themes.
